The shelf-life and commercial viability of frozen food products, and particularly frozen frosted bakery products, is often predicated on their resistance to develop visual and tactile imperfections such as dulling, stickiness, and chipping after thawing. Although these blemishes do not create health risks or significantly influence the taste of the bakery product, their unappetizing appearance often dissuades potential buyers. For example, frozen frosted bakery products often experience rapid surface wetting or dehydration due to moisture migration that affects the texture, stickiness, and shine of products when thawed.
Although known in the confectionary industry, edible coatings have not been widely used in the baking industry. In particular, edible coatings for use on frozen bakery products have not been widely adopted because the application of an edible coating to a fresh bakery substrate, such as a doughnut, prior to freezing has specific disadvantages. Freezing and thawing of a fresh bakery product causes the product to contract and expand, respectively, due to the temperature changes. As a result of the surface tensions caused by the temperature gradient created during production of frozen bakery products, textural defects, such as cracks, hair lines, and condensation, are often observed on the product's surface after final thawing.
Further, thawed bakery products seldom retain the fresh, “ready-to-eat” look of their freshly made counterparts. Thus, an edible coating for frosted bakery products that provides flexible tolerance of freeze/thaw cycles to reduce the formation of cracks, hair lines, and condensation while also maintaining a competitive “ready-to-eat” appearance after thawing is desirable.